Digitizing airport operations for faster flights

This article is a part of Startup Spotlight, a series that features young, up-and-coming startups.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Managing an airport involves coordinating flight schedules, baggage handling, and gate allocations. When these functions operate in silos, passenger delays and safety risks increase.

Blunav brings these moving parts onto a single connected platform to streamline airport management.

😟 Problem

India’s aviation sector is expanding rapidly, yet airport operations data often exists in disconnected silos across varying vendor platforms. This can result in:

• Smaller regional facilities depending heavily on manual coordination.
• Large hubs struggling with complex, multi-terminal environments.
• A patchwork of vendor systems creating fragmentation that limits efficiency, coordination, and service delivery.

💡 Solution

Blunav is developing a modular airport operating system tailored for the Indian aviation ecosystem. The platform connects various terminal functions to improve operational coordination. Its features include:

• Flight operations tracking and management.
• Automated gate and bay allocations.
• Passenger system integrations.
• Real-time analytics utilizing AI and IoT.

Image credit: Blunav

🤝 Team

• Suseendar Marimuthu. Co-founder and CTO. He previously worked as a research associate at DRDO, developing flight technologies.
• Cherukuru Sridharan. Co-founder and COO. He previously served as a technical director with over 25 years in the IT and ITES industry.

🚀 Traction

• Deployed airside management software at Chennai International Airport under the Airports Authority of India’s Startup India initiative.
• Reduced runway occupancy time by 22% during a 20-day study tracking over 3,500 flights.
• Validated the Rapid Exit Taxiway at the Chennai facility, cutting runway occupancy from 59 to 46 seconds, and unlocked 147 minutes of runway capacity.

🏆 Competition

The company competes with global airport technology providers like SITA and Amadeus. Blunav differentiates itself by offering a cost-effective, indigenous technology stack for Indian airports. This positions the platform as a domestic alternative supporting government digitization initiatives.

💰 Financials

The startup monetizes its software by charging airports a subscription fee. Blunav secured US$1 million in a seed funding round led by Piper Serica in May 2026. 

🚩 Risks